The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) has released Report No.534 titled “Some Characteristics of Urban Slums, 2008-09” based on the survey of urban slums conducted in its 65th round. The field work of the nationwide survey was carried out during July 2008 to June 2009. This report is based on the data collected from 365 notified and 365 non-notified slums found in 4738 surveyed urban blocks.

Some important findings of the survey are given below.

About 49 thousand slums were estimated to be in existence in urban India in 2008-09, 24% of them were located along nallahs and drains and 12% along railway lines.

About 57% of slums were built on public land, owned mostly by local bodies, state government, etc.

In 64% of notified slums, a majority of the dwellings were pucca, the corresponding percentage for the non-notified ones being 50%.

For 95% slums, the major source of drinking water was either tap or tubewell.

Only 1% notified and 7% non-notified slums did not have electricity connection.

About 48% of the slums were usually affected by waterlogging during monsoon – 32% with inside of slum waterlogged as well as approach road to the slum, 7% where the slum was waterlogged but not the approach road, and 9% where only the approach road was waterlogged in the monsoon.

The sanitary conditions in the slums in terms of latrine facility during 2008-09 showed considerable improvement since 2002. Latrines with septic tanks (or similar facility) were available in 68% notified and 47% non-notified slums (up from 66% and 35% respectively in 2002). At the other extreme, 10% notified and 20% non-notified slums (down from 17% and 51% in 2002) did not have any latrine facility at all.

The United Nations’ agency in charge of housing, UN-Habitat, has warned that the growth rate of slums in the country, in particular, and the continent at large, poses serious threats of diseases and environmental degradation.

The UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director, UN-Habitat, Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, noted this in a document, which was obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Friday.

She noted that the agency’s estimates showed that sub-Saharan African countries, including Nigeria, had the highest urban slum households in the world with figures varying between 60 and 70 per cent.

She said, “Contrary to conventional wisdom, we now know that slum dwellers are just as vulnerable as their rural counterparts to the incidence of hunger and diseases and have less education and high unemployment rates.”